In a recent article on Think with Google, Google’s VP of Marketing for the Americas, Lisa Gevelber, goes into detail about consumers making quick decisions and acting on those decisions faster than ever before.

In essence, consumers are reacting in realtime to micro-moments where they find, go, do, or buy as the need arises. When making these quick decisions, consumers use indicators like Google Reviews to determine where they spend their money. Today, we’re going to look at how you can win new business in today’s micro-moment world by growing positive Google reviews with the help of Constant Contact email marketing.

Google Reviews Drive Buying Decisions

Funny enough, just a few weeks ago, I was giving my daughter a bath when I heard my wife yelling from downstairs, “Bryan, the kitchen is flooded!” It turns out the bathtub was causing a downpour through the kitchen ceiling, and I instantly found myself in a micro-moment. I needed a plumber to fix this leak, so we could continue to use the bathtub. With that, I picked up my phone and used Google’s voice search to find a “plumber near me.” The first result in the local pack was a plumber in my town with five-star Google reviews, so I called right away.

The plumber came over within the hour, assessed the problem, did a quick fix, and told me he’d be back the next day with the proper parts. True to his word, he came the next day, fixed the leak, and handed me the invoice. He was prompt and professional, just like his Google reviews had described him, and I was happy to pay the bill.

74 percent of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more.

Nowadays, more and more consumers are relying on data points like Google reviews to make their buying decisions. In fact, 74 percent of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more, and 84 percent of people trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family. With stats like these, there is no denying that your business needs to have a digital presence with positive Google reviews. Let’s look at how to grow your Google reviews.

How To Grow Your Google Reviews

There are three methods to grow your Google reviews:

Method 1: The Verbal Ask

Way back when, I used to ask clients to search for my business and leave a Google review. Although they had good intentions, there was barely any follow-through because there were too many steps involved. In essence, verbally asking for a Google review is not effective.

Method 2: The Direct Link

Google My Business offers a way to find your business’s PlaceID, which can be added to a pre-set URL to create a direct review link. (Are you confused yet?)

For instance, the PlaceID for my digital marketing agency, BJC Branding, is ChIJo8FcdTVj44kRga5RffGZmoE. If I add our PlaceID to the preset URL, I now have a direct link to my Google My Business reviews page: https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=ChIJo8FcdTVj44kRga5RffGZmoE.

There are two drawbacks to this method:

1. The URL is very long and overwhelming to your customers
2. The PlaceID can easily be truncated or “lose a character” in the copy and paste process, rendering it useless

Ultimately, this method gets the job done, but there is a more effective and efficient way to grow your Google reviews.

Method 3: The Review Engine

The easiest way to grow your Google reviews (and reviews on many other sites like Facebook, Yelp, etc.) is by using a review engine service. One service to consider is MyReviewDashboard, which is offered as part of BJC Branding. These kinds of review engine services provide a slew of benefits, including:

• Proactively solicit Google reviews
• Get alerts when new reviews come in
• Quarantine negative reviews before they become public
• Resolve issues with unhappy customers
• Promote positive reviews via social media, email marketing, and on your website

A service like MyReviewDashboard sets you up with a custom domain name to make it easy to solicit reviews from your happy customers. That custom domain can be shared on social media posts, business cards, invoices, receipts, and more. Best of all, you can use that same custom domain in your Constant Contact email marketing campaigns to grow your Google reviews.

How To Grow Positive Google Reviews with Email Marketing

Let’s assume that you have an email list of 100 happy customers and you were using a review engine service like MyReviewDashboard. You could spend hours sending each customer an individual email with your new custom domain name (e.g. www.reviewcompanyXYZ.com), or you could leverage the power of Constant Contact’s email marketing platform.

Constant Contact would allow you to custom brand your email campaign, personalize each email with a custom greeting, and streamline the content to save you time.

For instance, here’s an example of an email marketing campaign we recently sent to our clients.

In case you’d like to copy the text for your own review request email:

Hi [First Name],

I want to thank you for doing business with [Company Name]. I’m reaching out personally because I want to ask about your experience with our team.

Were we amazing? Just OK? Terrible? In any case, I’d like to know.

We always strive to be better, and your feedback will help us accomplish that. If you’re willing, it will only take a minute of your time.

Thanks Again,

[Your Name]

[Review Link in Button Form]

For more review request templates and tactics, check out the BJC Branding blog.

Tying It All Together

At the end of the day, consumers are making split-second decisions when they find themselves in a micro-moment. By combining a review engine service like MyReviewDashboard with a powerful email marketing service like Constant Contact, you can solicit, collect, and promote positive Google reviews to win their business.

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